Salta: Big Steaks and Mummies
Trip Start
Apr 02, 2008
1
21
46
Trip End
Jul 31, 2008
Salta,
Northern Argentina,
Argentina
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Ofcourse, it was then Dave´s birtday on Saturday17th May which we started celebrating by going out late on Friday night. We went to this wicked place for the locals, it was like a large house which offers drinks and food. It had an outdoor space with a fire, and 6 rooms. Most of the locals had brought their instruments - guitars, drums & accordians, and would simply take turns playing and singing, with everyone else enthusiastically joining in
One of the Plazas
. Each room had a different bunch of people singing, and getting merry on cheap red wine. Periodically people would also get up and dance around, some of the even enthusiastically swinging hankies around in their hands. What a wicked place! Ofcourse, we made the most of it, also induging in cheap red wine with a quick pisco sour to finish off the night, we didn´t actually get to bed until about 5am. Needless to say we felt the effects next morning. Later that day we visited the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology about the archaelogical finds from the highest local peak in the area (Mount Llullaillaco, 6,700 m), dating from the Inca´s and possibly the pre-Incas. The Incas used the moutain peak as a site for sacrafice to the gods. They offered many little treasures but three sacraficed children, the "Llullaillaco Children" . These children were young (6yrs, 7yrs and 15 yrs) and selected for their good breeding and beauty. After trekking to, and then returning from Cuzao (the spiritual centre for the Incas) where they were blessed, they were then fed beer until they fell asleep and were entombed at the top of the moutain in the belief they would be collected an looked after by the gods. They were incredibly well preseved, and were different to Egyptian Mummies who were mummifed by chemicals, as these children were ´natural mummies´ which basically meant they were frozen. So were got to see a couple of the mummies in the museum which was really interesting although I (Louise) also thought it was a bit sad.
We then had a final celebration of Dave´s birthday by going to a local resturant recommended for their meat. The steaks were massive, serviously, imagine a smallish dinner plate, the steaks completly filled these plates. They were, ofcourse, absolutely delicious and we washed them down with a little hair of the dog (a nice little Cabernet Sauvignon. A worthy last meal for Argentina.
Chao Argentina.
